Converting coker unit off-gas into hydrogen and carbon nanomaterials
Partners: Syncrude Canada Ltd.
Eliminating sources of greenhouse gas emissions in oil production is essential to meeting Canada's climate targets. Coking and steam reforming in hydrogen production, prevalent processes used in Canadian oil production, are major contributors to these emissions. In addition to the desired oil produced by coking, carbon-containing gases are generated and burned to supply heat required by the process, releasing an estimated 50,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide daily in Canada. At the same time, Canada's future sustainability plans depend on low emission sources of hydrogen gas for renewable energy storage and shipping, applications where batteries are impractical.
We develop a process whereby, instead of burning gases produced through coking, they are instead converted into a hydrogen-rich gas and carbon nanotubes, without producing carbon dioxide. The process can be designed so that the hydrogen gas can be burned to supply the same heat required in the process, or purified to supply low emission hydrogen. The carbon nanotubes store carbon, preventing its release into the atmosphere, while having value as a high strength material used in wind turbines and/or as battery electrodes for electric vehicles.
The main outcome of the project was that byproduct gases from oil sands bitumen processing were successfully converted into hydrogen and commercial-quality carbon nanotubes without generating the carbon dioxide usually produced when these gases are burned.
Research Biographies
Michael Boutilier
Assistant Professor, Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering; cross appointed to the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering
- PhD in Mechanical Engineering and Computation, MIT (2017)
- MASc in Mechanical Engineering, University of Waterloo (2011)
- BASc in Mechanical Engineering, University of Waterloo (2009)
Michael received his PhD in mechanical engineering and computation from MIT where he majored in thermal-fluids engineering and minored in nanoscale science and technology. His doctoral research focused on developing graphene membranes for gas separation and on the invention of xylem water filters.
He obtained his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering from the University of Waterloo, where he researched airfoil operation at low Reynolds numbers. After completing his PhD, he worked as a conductor etch product engineer at Lam Research before joining the Mechanosynthesis Group at MIT as a postdoctoral associate. There, he conducted research on carbon nanotube technology for electroadhesion and high resolution, nanoporous flexographic printing.
Dr Cedric Briens
Professor, NSERC/Syncrude Industrial Research Chair in Fluid Coking Technologies
- P.Eng
- Dipl. d'Ingénieur (ENSIC) 1975
- Ph.D. (Western) 1980
Cedric Briens is Director, R&D, of the Institute for Chemical and Fuels from Alternative Resources (ICFAR) http://www.icfar.ca, which he founded with Dr. Franco Berruti and other colleagues at the University of Western Ontario. He has over 25 years of experience in both academia and industry. His areas of expertise are fluidization and particulate operations, which he has applied, for example, to the development of new reactor technology for the conversion of biomass and heavy oils into valuable products.
